Various social networking services allow users to generate and share content with each other from almost anywhere. For example, Twitter® allows users to provide minute-by-minute tweets (status updates) by sending text messages from a cell phone, accessing a Web site from a personal computer, or using an application from a smart phone such as an iPhone® or an Android® phone. Facebook®, Myspace®, and LinkedIn® similarly allow users to update their status and otherwise share content with their friends, with groups of friends, or with the general public. Foursquare® and Gowalla® allow users to check into a specified location as a form of status update.
Because these services are free and readily available, users tend to frequently post short items of content, often less than 160 characters. Much of the content includes slang terms, acronyms, and/or incomplete phrases. Social networking services allow an author to freely post this ambiguous content in the social networking context. The posts generally reach friends of the author and subscribers of the author's posts. The readers sometimes understand the content, but the content is not always understood by or even relevant to the readers. The posts often do not reach the readers to whom the content could be the most helpful.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.